jenna: the president's opening bid to avoid the fiscal cliff, already called a none starter by republicans including this $1.6 trillion in new taxes. 400billion in spending cuts, tbd specifically on that. a little extra cash for infrastructure spending, republicans call that stimulus. and a plea for new powers to raise the debt ceiling without having to go directly to congress. joe trippi is howard dean's former campaign manager and a fox news contributor. good to see you this morning. >> good to see you, jenna. jenna: as opening bids go what do you make of that one. >> it makes sense that this is the president's opening bid. republicans ran around saying his only answer is to raise taxes on the rich and play class warfare, and we have a spending problem, not a revenue problem. so if the president says look, i want to raise taxes 1.6 trillion it should be no surprise. if you want to cut spending more put your specific cuts in medicare on the table and let's start having the negotiations. it makes sense to me that he would start low on the spending cuts and let the republicans take the hit,